At least one suicide bomber blew himself up late Tuesday night inside a Western-style hotel in Kabul, police said. A guest said he heard gunfire echoing throughout the five-story building.

There was no immediate word on casualties in the rare, nighttime attack in the Afghan capital. Streets leading to the Inter-Continental hotel were blocked. The hotel sits on a hill overlooking Kabul. The scene there was dark as electricity was out at the hotel.

Azizullah, an Afghan police officer who uses only one name, told an Associated Press reporter at the scene that at least one bomber entered the hotel and detonated a vest of explosives. Another police officer, who would not disclose his name, said there were at least two suicide bombers.

Jawid, a guest at the hotel, said he jumped out a one-story window to flee the shooting.

"I was running with my family," he said. "There was shooting. The restaurant was full with guests."

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to The Associated Press.

The Inter-Continental _ known widely as the "Inter-Con" _ was once part of an international chain. But when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the hotel, was left to fend for itself.

The hotel, used by Western journalists during the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, has been targeted before.

On Nov. 23, 2003, a rocket exploded nearby, shattering windows but causing no casualties.

Twenty-two rockets hit the Inter-Con between 1992 and 1996, when factional fighting convulsed Kabul under the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani. All the windows were broken, water mains were damaged and the outside structure pockmarked. Some, but not all, of the damage was repaired during Taliban rule.

Other hotels in the capital have also been targeted.

In January 2008, militants stormed the capital's most popular luxury hotel, the Serena, hunting down Westerners who cowered in a gym during a coordinated assault that killed eight people. An American, a Norwegian journalist and a Philippine woman were among the dead.

Attacks in the Afghan capital have been relatively rare, although violence has increased since the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. raid in Pakistan and the start of the Taliban's annual spring offensive.

On June 18, insurgents wearing Afghan army uniforms stormed a police station near the presidential palace and opened fire on officers, killing nine.

Late last month, a suicide bomber wearing an Afghan police uniform infiltrated the main Afghan military hospital, killing six medical students. A month before that, a suicide attacker in an army uniform sneaked past security at the Afghan Defense Ministry, killing three people.